<p>Freshman and below, feel free to post your questions, worries, or comments regarding highschool</p>
<p>Musings from an upperclassmen. </p>
<p>It gets better.</p>
<ul>
<li>High School Junior whose life gradually sucked less as high school years went by.</li>
</ul>
<p>^^ pretty much… haha</p>
<p>Not a question, but advice to gifted or just smart kids- You can coast through freshman and sophomore years at most schools. I did homework maybe five times in those first two years, and I have a 4.3. Junior year will smack you upside your face. You will have real homework, and you will have to study, and yes, it sucks.</p>
<p>Advice: If AP classes are offered in the freshman level DO THEM. I’m being serious, it’s better to get them out of the way now than later, even if it means self studying them (though I’d advise self studying Ap Stats or AP Psych, etc). Make a schedule for yourself, watch review sites, etc. The true question that needs to be asked in all of this is of whether you’re willing to commit to it and follow through on assignments.</p>
<p>How likely is it that you’ll still be friends with your junior high friends by the end of freshman year?</p>
<p>Hmm… with what awesomeirl, I’m looking back upon my own Freshman year - I don’t think I could have handled any AP course (unless it was like, AP Human Geography.) My Sophomore Year, AP US History was enough to break my back with homework…</p>
<p>…but now as a Junior, with four AP courses, it seems like a piece of cake to me. I don’t know if it’s just me maturing and my time management improving, but I suggest using Freshman year as a time to kind of feel out what type of student you are before diving into the deep end of academia, which is of course, IB/AP.</p>
<p>@Swinter (Junior over here), it depends on a couple things
A) is you class size pretty large -mine is around 500ish
B) did you like any of you junior mates?
C) Are you sociable or kinda introverted?
D) What type of classes are you taking(the more advanced you go, the more you see the same people)
I have to say I’m friends still with some of my junior high friends, but I have more friends that had come from a different school. EC halos with making friends outside of the norm or smart kids in class.</p>
<p>@Swinter
In my opinion, it is very unlikely that you’ll still be friends with a majority of your junior high school friends after freshmen year. Just like I’m experiencing right now in my freshmen year of college, you kind of just go your own ways in high school too. Unless you & your friends have most of the same classes & try to hangout outside school, you’ll just end up making new friends. </p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6300 using CC</p>
<p>A) My class has 750+ kids.
B) Yeah, I did like my junior high friends pretty well. We’re kind of growing apart though…
C) I’m a sociable person. Not really introverted at all.
D) I’m taking all honors classes (which really doesn’t mean anything lol) My friends are all-honors kids too. </p>
<p>Unfortunately most of my friends and I don’t have any classes together. And I feel like we’re all getting immersed in our extracurricular activities and homework and there’s never time for us to hang out with each other.</p>
<p>I should’ve modified what I said with what preamble1776 mentioned…As a freshman, you’re still continuing to mature academically so it’s better not to be TOO overambitious but as I said before IF you choose the AP route…pick the “easier ones” (Psych, Human Geo, Envir Science)</p>
<p>@Swinter it just gets harder! You might think that you won’t like being in classes with your junior high friends, but you will make and meet new people. You also change from an 8th grader to the end of freshman year. I have a theory, you never really are the grade you are in untill after a couple of months, you still act like the person you were before when school starts and slowly change, I have definitely! Your friends will change too and you learn who you actually like as a person more. And freshman year is pretty general classes, it becomes more “selected” <em>is that the word?</em> the higher you go and grade wise. And ECs are a plus, if you enjoy it and the people in it, there are more people that share your interests.</p>
<p>Biggest tip I can give: get out there and try new things.</p>
<p>Get into all sorts of new sports - freshman year is perfect time to pick up a new sport. If you’re not sporty, try joining some clubs. But either way, joining extracurricular activities your freshman year is great for a lot of reasons: 1) it’s hands down the easiest way to make new friends, even if you’re not particular sociable, 2) it’s fun, and 3) you get to learn a new skill.</p>
<p>Also, as for the AP class debate, what I’d recommend is spreading out your classes. I see a lot of people taking no AP classes their freshman/sophomore year, then piling on like 6 AP classes for junior year and getting destroyed by homework. I would try and gradually add them on: just do 1 AP class your freshman year just to kinda stick your feet in, then maybe do 2 of them sophomore year, then 3 or 4 junior year and so on.</p>
<p>Cannot second the ‘do new things’ enough. Join up with as many things that even slightly pique your interest as possible, but also don’t feel bad about dropping them. Maybe it’s just not your thing. Don’t regret that.</p>
<p>reopening thread, I’ going to be a senior next year and will be glad to answer any questions any of you might have, I might even give you tips on how I (will get) into the college of my choice (cocky aren’t I? :P)</p>
<p>Try hard early. Don’t wait until Junior year to realize that if you did one more hw you could’ve gotten that A.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any study tips and how to improve work habits? I kind of messed up 8th grade and I definitely don’t want to screw up freshman year…(taking 4 honors classes and Spanish 1) I want all A’s…</p>
<ol>
<li>Use a planner</li>
<li>Find somewhere quiet, where you’ll do your homework and studying efficiently</li>
<li>Concentrate on one task at a time</li>
<li>Biggest tip-Do not procrastinate, it’ll bite you </li>
<li>For memorization, writing it repeatedly helps</li>
</ol>
<p>Seriously don’t procrastinate. That’s the biggest thing. It seems like a good idea at the time but you’ll always regret it. So much stress can be avoided if you start on assignments early. Especially if its a paper or a project. Start early so you can just do a little each night. It helps me to schedule what part I’m going to do each night and if you can, always pace yourself to be done early so if anything bad happens, you’ve got extra time.
And study for tests. I know so many people who don’t keep up with tests and don’t know when they are. Even if you’re confident about what the test is on, look over your notes just to be sure. You can’t study too much.
& once or twice a semester, your homework might not get done. You might have a huge list of homework plus a long practice after school and you might be super sleepy and stressed. You might be like screw this homework, I’m going to sleep. IT’S OKAY. As long as its only once or twice it’s okay. Don’t stress out. You don’t have to be the perfect goody goody student all the time. I know I thought I did.
Most of all, work hard in school but don’t get too stressed if you’re trying hard and still not making straight A’s. Your life will go on if you don’t get into Yale or Columbia. There’s plenty of other great schools. Don’t get caught up in big name schools. Find the school you love regardless of whether its ivy level or not. My biggest mistake was stressing about my grades too much. I missed out on a lot of fun stuff and being a normal kid. I felt like I had to be the perfect student.</p>
<p>General advice (I’m a rising senior):</p>
<p>Procrastinating is okay if you’re good at it. </p>
<p>Homework can be done at lunch, in other classes, or in the morning before school starts. </p>
<p>The difficulty of junior year compared to the other years is overrated. Either that or I don’t really remember how easy freshman year was.</p>
<p>Don’t let freshman year define you. If you’re behind, work hard to catch up. I took non-honors Algebra I as a freshman, but by the end of junior year I finished AP Calculus BC. </p>
<p>The experience you’re going to write your college essay about most likely hasn’t happened yet, so don’t start your essays before the middle of junior year or so. Also, your writing will improve a lot from freshman to junior year. </p>
<p>The best way to prepare for standardized tests is by taking practice tests…just reading through the prep book doesn’t help all that much. I got high scores despite not taking a prep class, so I don’t think they’re worth it, though they might be for some people.</p>
<p>Look for free, selective summer programs. The expensive non-selective ones aren’t as impressive. If you don’t get into a program, volunteer somewhere or get a job. (Paid employment is underrated on here for some reason. I mean, usually the work sucks, but I think it says more about your character and work ethic than something you had to pay for.)</p>
<p>This website has a lot of useful information and it bothers me when people try to push freshmen away, but it can also destroy your self-esteem if you let it. The fact that you’re on here indicates that you’re probably above average.</p>